A video piece reflecting on baptism has won the Ramsay Art Prize, worth $100,000 for artists under 40. Ida Sophia’s video Witness is the first time a performance piece has won a major Australian art prize, according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Art Critic, John McDonald. Based on the South Australian artist’s early childhood experience of observing her father’s baptism, Witness was shot in a single take at The Pool of Siloam in Wirmalngrang/Beachport in regional South Australia.
Describing the video as part of an “endurance’ school of performance art.McDonald captures his response to the piece: “For 12 long minutes, the artist is dunked under the water by another artist, playing the priest. It’s gruelling to watch, as there are many moments when Sophia is gasping for breath as she is shoved back down into the pool. It’s hard to imagine how physically and emotionally draining this process must have been, especially when one learns the film was made in a single take that lasted half an hour.
“It feels as if we are watching someone being water-boarded rather than baptised. It conjures up thoughts of all the suffering and privations people go through in the name of religion, where the mortification of the flesh is often the first step towards the purification of the soul.”
Baptism outdoors in suburban Adelaide, but in a baptistery pool, was my experience of baptism. The church gathered around our unusual outdoor baptistery and sang a song as I emerged from the water and was quickly wrapped in towels. It was coldish but not gruelling. It was a joyful moment.
But to explore baptism as gruelling in an artwork is reasonable. It signifies death, the death of the old person, and being born again into new life. It reflects the suffering of our Saviour.
Did Sophia mean that?
“When I was seven years old, my parents split and I felt that my position as my father’s favourite had been sort of replaced by religion,” she told the ABC.
“And so I decided that I would become super religious to win back that place.
“But this is the thing with vain hope, that we do it even though we know that we’re not going to achieve what we want.”
However, She certainly depicts baptism as a serious business worth deep consideration, as McDonald pointed out. May her work point people who experience it to ponder the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Sophia’s Witness and the other 26 finalists’ works can be seen at the Art Gallery of South Australia until August 27.
Image: Ida Sophia and Witness. Credit: AGSA, Saul Steed